Rise Above The Ashes
Chapter 7
Family dinner the following night was a sombre affair. Blaine and Sam were well and truly grounded for their antics the previous night (not that it was really going to stop Blaine going out over the weekend), and Kurt was in Burt's bad books for not telling him what had gone on. Finn's eyes flickered over his family members, shovelling carrots into his mouth at the rate of knots and trying to figure out a way to feed the meatloaf to Shadow. He could always order pizza later on.
Blaine caught his eye and shook his head sharply, already feeding the poor dog his own meatloaf under the table.
Burt sighed shaking his head at Blaine's less than subtle actions, Sam just happening to 'drop' his meatloaf on the floor, and Kurt glaring at the food as though it had offended his every being. "Alright everybody freeze."
The boys froze in place, Finn's fork halfway to his mouth and a green bean sticking out of Blaine's. "Blaine, Finn, swallow your food. Everybody else eat the vegetables and l will order pizza later on."
"We can leave the meatloaf?" Kurt asked warily.
"You can leave the meatloaf," Burt clarified, glaring at the boys' whoops of joy and Carole's laughter.
Carole kissed him on the cheek quickly, "Next time leave it to Kurt, Blaine, or me yeah?"
"Always if this is the reaction to not having to eat it," He pouted.
Blaine quirked an eyebrow one finger playing with his industrial piercing, "Pops it's a god damn brick. I don't now how Shadow hasn't broken his teeth on it."
"Thanks Blaine," Burt glowered before laughing softly at the face Blaine pulled at him.
"Anytime Daddio," Blaine smirked, "Can I put a request for extra meat on the pizza please?" He winked at Kurt, the older boy spluttering on his glass of water and turning rapidly red.
"BLAINE!" Burt roared, Sam and Finn wrinkling their noses in horror.
"And I'm done with that," Sam sighed mournfully pushing away his plate still laden with potatoes.
Blaine rolled his eyes with a cheeky grin, "Yeah, yeah I know, go to my room."
"You're a pain in the ass kid," Burt chuckled softly.
Blaine snorted, starting to choke as Sam thumped him on the back. "Way too many jokes," He managed to wheeze out, still spluttering slightly. His eyes sparkled with mirth and he grinned at Burt.
"Go," Burt demanded pointing to the stairs and trying to hide his smile.
Blaine simply smirked, sauntering up the stairs. Moments later his door slammed and music started to pound down the stairs.
"Can he find an innuendo in everything?" Carole laughed shaking her head and starting to clear the table.
Kurt, Finn and Sam nodded at each other, "Yes."
Grabbing his and Blaine's discarded plates Kurt shrugged slightly, "He always has been able to." Turning at the sudden silence behind him he chuckled softly, "You weren't expecting that, huh?"
Sam grabbed a few of the bowls from the middle of the table and shook his head, "Nope, I assumed that came with the personality transplant he had at the beginning of the year."
Kurt followed him into the kitchen with a laugh. "Nope he's always been the same even back in his Dalton days. He just didn't share it with everybody within ear shot."
Tipping the leftover vegetables into a container Sam passed the empty bowl to Kurt to be rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher, contemplating what that meant for the 'bringing the old Blaine back' mission everyone else seemed to be on.
Kurt took a deep breath, knocking gently on Blaine's bedroom door. "Blaine, I brought you some pizza up." The door swung open and Kurt sucked in a breath at Blaine dressed in tighter than tight black jeans with rips at the knees and a figure hugging white sleeveless top.
"Thanks sweetheart," Blaine smirked, grabbing the plate from Kurt, practically inhaling the pizza, to Kurt's utter disgust.
Following Blaine into the room, Kurt couldn't help but smile at the little bits of Blaine seeping through the bedroom décor, the vinyl collection and record player tucked away in the corner, and the shelf of small robots. He dropped onto the bed beside Vesper and gently stroked his fingers through the cat's velvety fur, grinning at the loud purrs he received.
"And you're in here why?" Blaine questioned, sitting on the edge of his desk and looking over Kurt's toned figure.
"I just thought we could talk."
Blaine snorted, "Why? We're not friends."
"Not really what you were saying last night," Kurt muttered, glancing up from Vesper's fur.
"I don't remember last night," Blaine said darkly. "Oh wait, there were these twins…" He smirked standing and pacing into the middle of the room with his plate of pizza.
"Blaine God dammit! Don't you get it? You are everything, you are the single most precious thing in my life and seeing you like this is killing me!"
"Then why did you never answer?! I called you so many times Kurt and you kept hanging up on me. Don't you dare tell me that your phone had no signal because two or three rings and then it cuts off? That was you declining the phone call and it happened just about every time I rang you."
Kurt slammed into Blaine, the pizza crashing to the floor as he wrapped his arms around his waist drawing him in closely. Blaine's arms automatically reached into Kurt's hair, tugging on it to make Kurt groan against his lips. Kurt backed Blaine into his bathroom door, letting his hands wander underneath Blaine's t-shirt pressing their bodies as close as they could physically get. Sliding his hands to Blaine's ass, he pushed Blaine into wrapping his legs around Kurt's waist, both of them groaning at the new angle they found themselves at.
Tilting his head to get better access to Blaine, Kurt pressed in closer. Blaine's hand slid down to his neck, breathing raggedly as Kurt pressed butterfly kisses to his own throat before recapturing his lips. His fingers grasped for Blaine's hands and pulled them above his head to rest on the cool wood of the door.
Blaine whined softly, breathing heavily as Kurt pulled away with a grin, "I knew I'd find you in there somewhere."
Blaine wrenched away, his feet falling to the floor, fire flaring up in his eyes. "You know nothing about me anymore," He hissed glaring steadily at Kurt before taking off out of his room and down the stairs. "If you knew how many men I've fucked over the last year you'd want nothing to do with me, so just fuck off and leave me the fuck alone Kurt."
"We'll see about that," Kurt muttered darkly raising an eyebrow at a smirking Sam when he passed him halfway down the stairs.
Burt watched Blaine stumble down the stairs, tears staining his cheeks while he fumbled with the box of cigarettes seemingly stuck in his pocket. "Blaine…"
"Not now," He growled storming out of the sliding door that led to the outside patio slamming it so hard the glass rattled in the frame.
Burt sighed sadly as Blaine's head dropped to his hands, his shoulders shaking slightly before he tried to light the cigarette he was holding. "There it is," He murmured quietly, about to follow Blaine outside until Kurt stomped down the stairs, anger rolling off of him in waves. Taking a deep breath, Burt sent his eyes heavenward praying to Elizabeth and the Andersons that they would help him get through what he believed would be an incredibly tough night with their boys.
"Alright Kurt, what happened?"
"He's a fucking heathen!" Kurt cried, slamming dishes around the kitchen, "He's such an asshole."
"Kurt language," Burt muttered automatically, wincing when Kurt whirled on him, fire burning in his eyes.
"Are you kidding? You let Blaine get away with murder and I can't say one little word. Remind me again who the actual adult is out of the two of us."
"Enough Kurt," Burt said, moving to stand in front of his son. "Right now neither one of you are acting like adults quite frankly." Burt pulled Kurt in for a hug before letting him go again. "Blaine doesn't get away with murder Kiddo, he just couldn't care less about getting punished, which is the problem really. Believe when I say that he's had worse punishments than I think I ever had to give you both here and at school, they're just ineffective."
"I miss Blaine. I miss the bowties and the raspberry hair gel. I miss his puppy dog nature and his inability to swear beyond saying dang it all the time. I miss his parents and hell even Cooper. I thought it was weird when he stopped messaging me all of a sudden but I didn't even question it. Why the hell didn't I question it?"
"Kurt just stop, stop for a minute. I know that you don't like Blaine as he is right now but he's like this to try and protect himself. It's become his damn defence mechanism."
Sighing Burt clasped his son on the shoulder and shot him a sad smile, leaving the room through the sliding door. Kurt watched as Burt sat down next Blaine on the back steps of their house, feeling his anger ebb away at the vulnerable boy stiffening up in an attempt to push Burt away.
He kept watching as Burt broke down Blaine's resolve, the teenager taking one last shaky draw from his cigarette before leaning heavily into Burt's side. Burt reaching up to run a gentle hand through the flyaway curls even as the teenager trembled against him.
"I don't know if I can keep doing this Burt," Blaine whispered, huddling into Burt's side and stubbing out the cigarette.
Burt held him tightly, running his hand steadily through the curls. "Okay, first where did Dad go hmm?" Blaine chuckled softly, his cold nose pressed to Burt's collar, arms folded tightly around his body like they were the only things holding him together. "And secondly, do what? You don't have to do anything alone Blaine, I hope that you know that, we're always here for you Kid."
Laughing humourlessly, Blaine drew away from Burt, "Funny that. My Dad used to say the same thing, now he's six foot under and definitely not still here for me."
"Blaine," Burt warned quietly, watching Blaine tilt his head back and close his eyes, a few tears leaking from under his closed eyelids.
"Sorry, that was uncalled for," Sighing, Blaine drew his knees up and rested his chin on them. "If you want to kick me out I would completely understand. I can find somewhere to go."
Burt's eyebrows drew up in shock and he swept his cap from his head. "Why on earth would you ever, ever think that we want you to go anywhere?"
"Because Kurt's here and I'm making his life miserable. I don't even think that I'm necessarily doing it deliberately, it just keeps happening."
"Blaine, you are just as much a member of this family as Kurt is."
"Well that definitely makes my relationship with Kurt an illegal activity."
Burt levelled the teenager with a look, "Blaine, really?"
Blaine smirked pulling out his zippo to play with it, flicking the flame up and down. "If I'm just as much a member of the family as Kurt then that makes it incest Pops, hate to tell you. And that relationship has definitely been consummated more than a few times."
"Blaine." Burt said more sternly, fixing the boy with a stern look. "You know exactly what I'm talking about so stop trying to act like a cocky little shit about it."
Blaine glowered at him, "Who's acting?"
They both jumped when the sliding door slid open behind them, Kurt smiling at his Dad apologetically as Shadow bounded down the steps before he slid the door shut again. The golden retriever bounded happily around the garden sniffing Carole's various flowerbeds before sprinting back over to them, sitting in front of Blaine and dropping his head into his lap with a whine.
"Hey boy," Blaine murmured, stroking his fluffy ears carefully and pressing his face to his dogs momentarily. "I'm sorry," He whispered, Burt turning to him in shock.
Sighing Burt wrapped his arm around Blaine's shoulders again. "I love you Kid, you as you used to be, and you now. You're just different sides of Blaine." His lips quirked into a cautious smile, "Polar opposite sides of Blaine, but Blaine nonetheless." Blaine laughed softly and Burt took to tenderly tucking the curls away from his face once more.
"Blaine, I gave Kurt a speech a long time ago now after a certain prep school boy turned up in my garage and told me I needed to talk to my son about sex." Burt raised an eyebrow at Blaine who laughed softly, "And now I'm going to give it to you, because I don't think you've ever had it."
Blaine wrinkled his nose up in dread, "Thanks Dad, but I already know about the birds and the bees. Or the bees and the bees in my case wait or is it the birds and the birds? How do you decide whose the male or female one in that situation? I mean it just doesn't really make any sense to be hon-"
"Blaine focus," Burt chuckled, shaking his head at the boy. "Now I know that you know all of the physical implications and all that," Burt pulled a face and Blaine snickered quietly into Shadow's fur, "I'm just not sure that anyone's ever told you about the emotional side of sex Blaine.
Cringing at his Dad using the word sex, Blaine ruffled Shadow's fur before turning to face Burt, leaning on the railings of the stairs. "Alright then Pops, shoot. Kurt already told me about some of it."
"It's not the same coming from the person that you're dating Blaine Kid."
Blaine sobered up watching Burt closely, aware that he would never fail to be intrigued by the man. He had loved his own Father and knew that he loved Blaine, but he would never have dreamed of talking to Blaine about any of this. He had barely talked to Blaine about the physical side, preferring to shove pamphlets at his son and run away.
Burt took a deep breath, feeling more prepared to have this conversation with Blaine now than he had been with Kurt two and a half years ago. "Being intimate with someone isn't just about being physical Blaine. You are baring your soul to that person, whether you want to or not." Blaine watched his hands play with Shadow's fur, feeling his cheeks burn with shame as he thought about all of the nights he had spent at Scandals over the last six months. "You make yourself vulnerable in that situation Blaine, you can never make yourself more vulnerable than when you trust someone with that." Blaine gulped, his eyes shimmering as he compared being with Kurt to being with the other men. He knew that there was no comparison.
Burt tucked a hand under Blaine's chin and forced the young boy to look at him. "You use it to connect to another person Blaine. Don't throw yourself around like you don't matter," Burt looked directly into Blaine's watery eyes, smiling sadly, "'Cause you matter Blaine, more than you know."
Blaine sobbed loudly, throwing himself into Burt's waiting arms. "Thank you Burt…Dad."
"Anytime Kid, anytime," Burt whispered, rocking them back and forth as Blaine cried against him. Kurt watched from inside the sliding door, feeling his own tears slide slowly down his cheeks.